The Bar Is Now Officially Moved

So everyone is satisfied with the 49ers finishing at .500, is that it? And everyone is equally convinced that four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons makes Frank Gore the go-to guy in the offense?

Well, if you’re happy with that, then good on ya. It just seems a little paltry, is all.

Beating the Rams on Sunday would make the 49ers an 8-8 team for the first time in seven years, and to celebrate that achievement is largely a condemnation of the past because it is not normally a useful rubric for predicting the future.

In other words, the 49ers are every bit as likely to fall back in 2010 as spring forward because their real issues are not easily diminished by saying, “Yeah, but they didn’t have a losing record.”

For one, 8-8 is mediocrity, and that’s what they achieved this year. They will have finished 5-1 against one of the worst divisions in football — credit for sweeping the vulnerable Cardinals, marks off for losing so badly in Seattle, nothing whatsoever for beating the Rams.

But 5-1 in the division is also 3-7 against the real teams, and since the other three wins were against Detroit, Chicago and Jacksonville, that’s hardly an advertisement for future glory.

Next is the fact that the offense scored more than 30 points only once all year, in the first game against the Rams, and only managed as many as 27 points once in the spread-offense era, in the loss to Tennessee. That speaks to offensive issues that aren’t going to necessarily improive without a dramatic influx of new talent — two on the offensive line, a deep threat at wide receiver and a running back to replace Gore by 2011.

Gore had one of the strangest good years a running back has ever had — too often an afterthought, easily forgotten when offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye went on his throw-the-ball jags. The 49ers run less often than any other team, rank 25th in yards and average less than a touchdown per game. Yet Gore is lionized, even absurdly in some corners, as one of the finest running backs in team history.

That might have been true if he’d not started so poorly and then got hurt, and if head coach Mike Singletary hadn’t veered the offense so violently away from him. But it really isn’t, and he is now entering that uncertain how-much-more-does-he-have-left stage of his career.

Which leads us to the last issue — Singletary himself. He showed too many never-coached-before holes in his game, mostly in the communication and detail areas. These are largely experience issues that he can fix in 2010 if he chooses to focus more intently on them — and I thinkwe can all agree that intense focus is not a problem for him. But detail work isn’t glamorous work that can be enhanced by a rousing speech, and until they are corrected, the 49ers will not be a good team away from home, against good teams or in close games (they were blown out once, dominated once, and lost by less than a touchdown six other times).

In short, the 49ers can consider this a better year because the math says it is, but it is not a better year by nearly as much as people think. Their defense was the heart, soul and kidneys of the team, and because of the unnatural (even by 49er standards) focus on quarterback Alex Smith, the real issues of 2009 were often overlooked, glossed over or just plain forgotten.

In even shorter, the 49ers achieved mediocrity this year. That’s worth noting only because they were less than mediocre before, but it isn’t the same as becoming good. In fact, the jump from crummy to mediocre is much easier than from mediocre to good. The tasks before them are large, and in many ways more difficult.

So enjoy that one-game improvement because you’ve earned it. Only know that the new job is now officially harder. Much harder.